Political opinion: Kimberley MP says Government's first priority in Middle East conflict is protecting British lives and British interests
I’m sure you’ll have seen the news of escalating conflict in the Middle East over the past week.
The US and Israel launched attacks on Iran, which responded by attacking countries across the region who had not attacked them.
The UK did not join in those initial strikes – our longstanding view has been that the best way forward is a negotiated settlement, which would see Iran give up its ambitions of nuclear weapons.
However, now British citizens in the region are being put in danger, and British allies are under attack.
Our priority is always the safety of British people, and the Government has been quick to start removing people from the region.
Thousands of people have now been brought home to the UK, on both commercial flights and flights chartered by the Government.
Some 140,000 people have registered their presence in the region with the Government, and we will continue to keep them up to date with the latest information as the situation develops.
In terms of scale, this operation is many times larger than the evacuation of Afghanistan, but we will not stop until our people are safe.
We have been building up defensive military resources in Cyprus and Qatar since January, including fighter jets, air-defence, radar and anti-drone systems.
On March 7, they were put into action, protecting our allies and our citizens, including shooting down a drone targeting a British military base.
Our presence in the region will continue to be strengthened.
Additional Typhoon jets are being deployed to Qatar, Wildcat helicopters with anti-drone capabilities are arriving in Cyprus this week and the HMS Dragon will soon be departing for the Mediterranean.
This situation has also shown the necessity of plans which this Government has already been putting in place.
We’ve seen the biggest increase in defence spending since the Cold War, which will be vital to keep the UK safe in increasingly uncertain times.
And we will continue to build up British clean energy capacity, insulating ourselves from shocks in the market caused by geopolitical events like this.
I support the Prime Minister’s decision-making in this crisis.
It was correct that we declined to be drawn into initial attacks, but it is also right that we come to the defence of those who need us.
We will continue to do everything we can to protect British lives, safeguard British interests and stand up for British values.